Dolores Park assault, party and a field of bottles, cans and cartons

Pride weekend ended at Dolores Park Sunday night with no life threatening injuries, but two incidents – an assault with a bottle and a party that triggered the arrival of two dozen police officers.

The assault took place at about 9 p.m. on the southwest corner of Dolores and 18th streets. Two sisters from Ireland and some friends had been sitting on the sidewalk trying to find their Clipper cards when they were approached by a group of young people who asked for a pen, one of the sisters said. They didn’t have one – a response that led one person in the group to hit one of the sisters over the head with a bottle.

The young woman declined to be treated by the Fire Department officers on the scene and was not bleeding, but, like her sibling, was shaken by the assault.

Meanwhile in the far northwest corner of the park near the bathrooms, some two dozen officers, six on motorcycles, surrounded a group of young revelers. One of the officers said they were called after a fight broke out, but no one had been arrested. The officer said they turned the music off, and for 45 minutes they waited patiently at a distance until the crowd dispersed.

One of the officers said they did not want the situation to blow up as too many police were needed a couple of blocks away in the Castro.

By 9:45 p.m., all that was left in the park was a field of trash. Broken bottles, smashed cans and soggy and empty six packs littered the park’s northern slope and field.

A half-dozen or so recyclers picked there way through the garbage. A park employee still on site said he had only been there this morning picking up trash. “They don’t care,” he said of the people who use the park.

Earlier this month, Sarah Madland, director of policy and public affairs, talked to Mission Local about changing the culture of the park. The idea is to have “taking out the trash” become an element of any day in Dolores Park – just as it is at Burning Man or the Outside Lands festival, she said explaining the strategy.

That, however, did not happen on Sunday.

Officers formed a perimeter around the party. Photo by Lydia Chávez

By 9:45 p.m. or so officers had moved the party off the park. Photo by Lydia Chávez